Definitely very excited for this artist talk tomorrow. You know when you think of what you think is a cool, innovative, new, weird, quirky, out-of-this-world idea and then you find an artist who has been there and done that idea backwards and forwards and can recite it backwards? Felt a little like that looking at Anicka Yi’s work today. Feels a lot like that recently, learning more about what is out there. It should be frustrating, realizing your ideas aren’t just your own, but for me right now it’s more encouraging. 

I love how simple and humble Anicka’s work feels, but not like it doesn’t know it’s good, its like it is familiar and everyday but presented in a way that makes it feel like there was some importance there that we didn’t notice before. I feel like her pieces look light and somewhat simple in images but in person, where more senses can be activated, they hold onto that visual simplicity but also find some sort of invisible complexity. This is something I want to experience and why I am interested in her work. Anicka Yi seems to study relationships a lot, and how people interact with more people. Some of these studies seem like she may have experienced them, while others feel like she was an observer of another’s relationship (like her work, Divorce. She has never been married herself). I hope to have a better idea of her work and processes and concepts after her talk, but these are my first impressions and feelings I get just by reading through some articles and looking at her work from my point of view. I plan on adding more tomorrow after the talk.